Hello again!

Once again, sorry for taking so long. I think it's been like 3-4 months or something since my last update. Unfortunately, I think that might be becoming the regular time frame, as I've been writing other things that haven't seen the light of day, but I will update when I can. This chapter has been done for like 2-3 weeks. I only needed to reread over it, but Ive been super sick so I kind of just said screw it.

This chapter clocks in at about 20.5k words, the biggest one so far, and it's only part 1 of 2.

The morning sun's rays peeking through the curtains, poking through his eyelids to nudge him from slumber.

Birds chirping merrily outside, singing from the trees.

A criminally conformable extra king-sized bed in which he could laze all day in if he so pleased.

It was all music to Jaune's ears.

This was definitely the nicest awakening he'd had on this island so far, and after going through a particularly traumatizing day like yesterday it was sorely overdue. The bed whispered his name like no other, urging him to savor the lingering morning just a tad longer, but he knew it was probably time to get moving.

He sat up, flexing an arm above his head and exhaling a deep breath-

"WHOA- SHIT!" he screamed and pulled up his covers as his tired eyes rapidly blinked away the sleepiness to focus on the dark figure in the room. "… Blake…?" She was just standing by the door, idly staring at him and eating a small cup of pudding with a spoon while her scythe leaned in the crook of her arm.

And was she wearing makeup now? He was pretty sure she wasn't yesterday. Winged eyeliner, black lipstick, and purple eye-shadow complimented her black dress perfectly. But why was she here?

Did she follow them home?

Blake swallowed a bite.

"Good morning," she greeted impassively.

"Jesus- What are you doing!?... Is that our pudding?"

"Blake was waiting for Jaune to wake." She took another bite. "… And Blake got hungry."

Jaune's brows met incredulously.

"How long have you been standing there?"

"Four hours."

"Four hours!?"

"They're coming."

Jaune blinked.

"… Wait, what?"

Still eerily watching, Blake put a hand on the doorknob behind her, pulling it slightly open and drifting out backwards. Jaune scrambled out of bed and ran to follow.

"Oh no, no, no, no, no, you can't just say something like that and leave, Blake!" He threw open the door and rushed into the hallway. "Blake!?" But she was completely gone, the black gas from her body lingering in the air and fading into nothing.

"And what about Blake?" Turning his gaze down a few doors to the end of the hall, Weiss stood halfway out of her doorway, wearing a surprisingly normal night gown, and her hair was put up into a neat, icy bun. She raised a critical brow and eyed him up and down. "Was she in your room while you were indecent like this?"

He looked down at himself, remembering that all he was wearing was one of a few kind-of-too-tight lady's briefs that he'd found. They weren't the most comfortable things he'd ever worn, but his choices on an island inhabited solely by women were in short supply.

"No! No!" he assured with peaceful gestures while kind of hiding himself partway behind the doorframe. "… I mean… well, yes, but-"

Weiss's door was angrily slammed shut.

Jaune closed his eyes and let slip a defeated sigh as he went back in his room.

"Aww, butt cheeks!"

Jaune held back a laugh.

"Having some trouble there, Ruby?" he asked while cooking some burgers on the stove top for lunch.

"No," she said in between unending sniffles as she continued to chop onions. "I got this… Piece of cake... No problem… Easy peasy-" she wiped her tear-stained cheek on her shoulder and sniffed again, "lemon squeezy."

Jaune may have felt a little bad. He figured he probably should've warned a first-time onion cutter what it was like…

Buuuut it was still funny!

"I don't feel sad, so why am I crying?" she whined as she cut with more vigor, taking her frustration out on the onions.

"That's just what they do, Ruby."

She threw the onion and knife down on the counter and started to rub her eyes furiously.

"Argh, it's only making it worse! Stupid things attack the heart and the eyes!"

Jaune didn't bother to hide his incredibly amused grin since she couldn't see.

"Here, let me try something." Moving to one of the fancy cabinets in the kitchen, he opened it, grabbing one of the many scented candles arranged inside for decoration. After that, he took a lighter from a drawer he'd found before and placed the candle next to the cutting board. "An old classmate of mine swore on his life that, if you cut onions next to a lit candle, the irritating chemicals will be drawn to the fire and leave you alone." He flicked life into the flame and lit the candle.

"Thanks, Jaune!" she said, squinting up at him through one watery, red eye.

Though, Jaune wasn't looking at her smile; he couldn't tear his gaze from the bruising just above her left cheek bone, the same bruise left by him last night.

"... No problem, Ruby."

Jaune went back tending to the burgers.

He still needed to talk with her about what happened. He'd already apologized numerous times, probably to the point where it was getting annoying, but it felt like an invisible barrier sat between them. There was still so much he wanted to say, that he needed to say, but what other words were there to express his regret?

It was an accident...

He found it difficult to focus on the food in front of him, so he snuck a glance at Ruby.

Unsure if it was a placebo effect, or if the candle method was actually working, he smiled as she was back to happily chopping away, bobbing around, and half-singing, half-mumbling to Get Low on Jaune's phone.

"Gettin' low… gettin' low-gettin' low-gettin low, to the windooooows, to the walls, hmm hmmm… Till the sweat drops down some balls… Hmm hmm, beaches crawl…"

Jaune silently cursed himself for not having the 'clean' version, especially while hearing her sing the next part of the lyrics, but he'd worry about that later.

He opened his mouth, but... How would he even start this conversation anyway?

Ruby, you know I care about you, right...

…

Hey, Ruby, about last night…

…

So, uhh, Ruby, remember when I basically punched you in the face...

"The onion threat has been defeated!" Ruby cheered and peered over to him, almost catching his lingering eyes as he quickly forced it down to the perfectly cut bunch of onions.

"Oh, uhh- Nice job, Ruby!"

He raised a hand for a celebratory high-five, but he pulled back when Ruby gasped and flinched away. She immediately opened her eyes and stared up at him like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Ah! I, uhh-! S-Sorry, I- It was, uhh, it was just the onions that were making it hard to see!" She squinted her eyes, blinking rapidly as if the onions were suddenly bothering her again. "See? I love high-fives! Up high, Jaune!" She raised a palm up.

But, Jaune couldn't bring himself to meet her hand in cheer anymore.

"... I'm sorry, Ruby," he said, instead taking her hand in his and giving it a comforting squeeze. Ruby's cheeks seemed to pink a little.

"F-f-for- for what?"

Jaune really, really didn't want to have to spell it out...

"Ruby-"

Standing in the doorway to the living room, Weiss loudly cleared her throat, and Jaune took his hand back.

"Yang said she needs your help," Weiss informed Jaune with no less than a little bite in her words.

"I, uhh-" He glanced at Ruby with a frown before looking back. "Can it wait a couple minutes?"

Weiss rolled her glowing eyes.

"I don't care," she said as if it was the dumbest question she'd ever heard as she left the kitchen.

Hanging his head, Jaune sighed and met Ruby's uncertain gaze.

"… Let me just go make sure it's not urgent-"

"Yeah, no, no, it's fine-"

"I just don't want to keep her waiting or anything-"

"Yeah, I understand-"

"Not to mention, she could be hurt or something-"

"For sure, definitely-"

"But I'll be right back, so don't go anywhere-"

"Take your time, take your time…"

"... Thanks, Ruby."

Another awkward moment later, Jaune was heading up the stairs towards Yang's room on the side of the house opposite of his and Weiss's. Walking into Yang's room, he didn't know what to expect, but seeing her lying on her side on the bed, posing seductively for Jaune, was not it.

"Hey there, sugar tits," she said with a wink. "What's a fine place like you doing in a dirty bitch like this?"

Jaune tried to hide a grin as he leaned against the doorframe.

"You've always had a certain way with words, haven't you, Yang?"

"Yeah, well, words are my first language."

Jaune let out a small laugh, but then he noticed something.

"Yang, you're bleeding through your bandages!"

Yang propped herself up further to look at the end of her tail where blood was seeping from the poorly dressed wound and onto the bed sheets. She grabbed a fresh towel from the pile on her bed and sat up to be better able to clean up what she could, but Jaune could tell her movement was clumsy and awkward because of the lack of her body's usual appendage to be a counterweight.

"Yeah... that's kinda what I need your help with," she said with a small, embarrassed laugh. "I sure did me a trouble, I did."

"Oh!" Jaune's body started into motion. "Right, of course, no problem." He kneeled at her bedside to get a closer look at the medical work she had done herself... And it was definitely mediocre at best. "Yang," he said, shaking his head. "This isn't going to do any good at all the way it is now... I thought you said you could take care of this?"

She crossed her arms.

"I did take care of it!"

"And that's why you need my help, right?" he asked rhetorically, and Yang's lips tightened. "Honestly, you probably shouldn't even be bandaging it in the first place."

"What? Why not? When people get hurt, you put a band aid on it."

"Well, yeah, normally, but you said it grows back, right?"

Yang raised a brow.

"Yeah..."

"Well, I'm no expert on reptiles, but wouldn't wrapping it up get in the way of it trying to regrow?"

"… It might," she answered quietly, her cheeks pinking a little. "I've never actually lost my tail before…"

That hurt him.

This was the first time she'd been injured like this.

And it was because he brought her somewhere unsafe. Just seeing his friend in this condition was breaking his heart, but, knowing that it was his fault was like a flaming knife trying to pierce his chest.

It didn't matter that her tail would grow back. If it wasn't for him getting them involved in his problems in the first place, this would never have happened.

"I… I'm sorry, Yang," he said, his face falling into gloom. Yang's eyes sharpened as she jammed her clawed finger into Jaune's shoulder, and he pulled away. "Ow! Yang, what the f-"

"Stop it. Stop doing that."

"Geez, sorry. Doing what- Ow!"

"That! Quit being so sorry all the time!"

Jaune's sad gaze found the bedsheets .

"... It's not that easy..."

"Bullshit! There's nothing you could've done to change the outcome. If I hadn't been so stubborn and jumped down that hole, maybe things might have been different, but that's not what happened, okay?"

"But I knew it was most likely a trap before we even went. If I'd have just-"

"Listen, Jaune," she cut in. "I don't know about Weissy McIcy Tits, but me and Ruby would've investigated that place even if you pussed out. And that nutty-ass chick was after me the whole time, anyway! We put ourselves in that position, so just be thankful that you were there to help when you were."

Even if what she was saying seemed to make sense, it didn't do much to alleviate this weight on his heart. It was still his phone that Emerald had used as bait after all.

There was still that part of him that felt responsible – That part that felt guilty – That part that wanted to make it up to her.

Jaune stood to his feet.

"I'll be right back."

After making sure his hands were squeaky clean, he came back in and sat on the bed. He laid another fresh towel over his lap, and then, to her surprise, lifted the end of Yang's tail, placing it in his lap as well.

"What are you doing?"

"Helping," he said as he carefully began undoing the old bindings.

Despite the bloody, messy, grim nature of what he was doing, it was oddly calming... helping to soothe the guilt he felt. Perhaps he received a sense of fulfillment from looking after his friends- cooking for them, giving them a place to live, tending to their wounds.

Though almost every minute of his last few days on this island had been actually insane, there were moments like this in between the bouts of chaos that were peaceful. He found he enjoyed these moments of serenity with them immensely. Was that weird?

He hoped that wasn't weird.

A contented smile rested itself on his lips.

Surprisingly, Yang hadn't objected or even teased him at all yet, so he glanced up from his work, finding her blazing red cheeks as well as her loitering eyes until she snapped them away.

"It's alright," he assured her. "Don't be embarrassed, Yang. You didn't have anyone to teach you these things."

Head bowed and keeping her eyes locked onto a pillow that suddenly seemed so interesting, she exhaled a nervous laugh.

"That's not what I'm embarrassed about," she said, and Jaune furrowed his brow curiously. "I... I guess I've just never really had anyone take care of me like this before."

He wasn't sure why, but Jaune's own face reddened a bit as well as he forced his gaze back down. It was so very uncharacteristic of Yang to suddenly seem so bashful, that it was even making him nervous!

"Well, umm... what else are friends for, right?"

"I could think of a few things..."

And, just as fast as it happened, she was back to normal again. Jaune smirked.

"Shut up..."

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see her smiling at him.

"I love it when you get all frazzled."

"Me?" Jaune asked, playfully narrowing his eyes at her in a side-glance. "Look at how red you are right now!"

"Hmph!" Yang crossed her arms and lifted her chin. "I don't know what you're talking about! I'm totally poised! I'm poised as fuck! Look how poised I am!"

Jaune shook his head as he started pulling off the last layer of bandage from her tail. It peeled off with a thick wetness. He figured he should probably be wearing gloves for something like this, but at least his hands were clean.

"So," he started again, "Your tail just grows back then? Pretty convenient."

"Yup!" she said proudly.

"Kinda like a lizard, huh?"

Any trace of humor dropped from Yang's face.

"Don't you ever fucking call me that again."

"Uhh, right... sorry."

She held her burning glare, crimson red dancing within and ready to consume purple, until they softened again.

"But, yeah… Kinda like a lizard."

Making a mental note to never use that word again, he worked in silence for a bit, wiping the blood-stained scales down and disinfecting the area. It looked like it was already healing up pretty well, especially around the edges where it had almost completely closed the wound already.

Curiously, his hand drew close to and gently brushed her plated scales on the side, making sure not to touch the more skin-toned underside in case it was sensitive like Ruby's. They were dry, warm, and smooth, pretty much like handling a big garden snake, though a bit harder than that. It was nice to the touch.

"You know," he said. "This kind of thing seems really personal... I'm kind of surprised I was the first person you thought of asking."

"Oh, you weren't. Ruby's not good with blood, Weiss said no, and you can go straight to hell if you think I'm asking Blake."

"... Oh..."

He supposed he sounded a little more disappointed than he intended because Yang looked at him somewhat apologetically.

"Hey, come on," she said and placed a scaly hand on Jaune's knee, giving it a gentle squeeze. "I'm just messing with you, Jaune... Not a lot of people have gotten to touch my tail without being choked by it."

Jaune snorted.

"Okay, please rephrase that. "

It was Yang's turn to tell him to shut up as she shoved him.

"… But, for real," she continued. "I wouldn't've even asked you if I didn't trust you. You know that."

Jaune finished up the last of the ministrations and tossed the disinfectant-covered towel into a laundry basket across the room, but made no effort to stand.

"Yeah... I guess you're right... I just wish Ruby trusted me."

"She does trust you," she said, and Jaune's lip crooked skeptically at her. "... Probably." Jaune groaned and rolled his eyes, and she lightly swatted his arm. " Kidding again! So don't worry your pretty, little face about it too much."

"I know, but I hurt her, Yang."

She sighed, and the air in the room turned a bit more tense when she eyed him.

"Listen, Jaune. I don't know what you think of my sister, but Ruby's actually pretty tough. She'll wear that black eye proudly. I mean, you saw when I 'yeeted' her off a cliff," she explained, wearing a thoughtful, yet contagious smile. It ran away, however, fading into a sad frown. "The thing is… I've kinda been telling her all her life that Humans are people that shouldn't be trusted. That they were all violent, manipulative, and sometimes sadistic people."

"Why would you tell her something like that?"

"Because I believed it too," she muttered quietly, dragging her ashamed gaze down to the sheets, her fingers twisting in them. Jaune watched her for a moment, a silent request to continue. "Summer was amazing, doing everything just by herself. No village, no one to rely on… Ruby doesn't remember a whole lot of her mom, but we both clearly remember the night that a group of Humans killed her… It was… a really bad night."

Jaune winced.

"I'm… really sorry to hear that…"

Yang nodded absently.

"My point is… I had a reason to be wary of Humans… …But then we met you." Yang finally looked up at him, and she seemed to search his eyes as she chuckled to herself. "I guess it's possible that Ruby never really believed all Humans were bad in the first place, but, if there was any doubt at all, you completely changed her mind… At least, until last night."

Jaune's fists tightened.

"You lost control," Yang continued, pointing out the obvious. "You showed her a side of you she was hoping didn't exist... But, I'm not saying I blame you. I lose my shit too sometimes. And if someone hacked off one of your limbs, they'd be getting at least a very stern talking to." She shot him a sly wink.

Jaune tried to smile back, but he couldn't even force out a convincing one, so he just simply hung his head.

"I just wish there was something I could do… I feel terrible about it."

"I think it's sweet." Jaune turned his skeptical gaze back to her, expecting a mocking grin, but instead found a sincere smile. "You're a good guy, Jaune. Give it time. She'll come around… especially if you just keep being you." She affectionately bumped him with her tail, and Jaune placed a hand on it.

"… Thanks, Yang."

"Anytime…" They sat in each other's silence, eyes drifting downcast until Yang's head popped back up with perhaps a little too much excitement. "Oh, hey! Wanna see something super fucking weird?"

Jaune's eyes flicked nervously.

"… Uhhh-"

Yang swung her tail over the side of the bed.

"Yeah, it's gonna be great! You're gonna love- WAH!" She hopped off, promptly falling forwards and belly flopping onto the floor with a grunt.

"Yang!" Jaune slid off the bed and to her side. "You alright?"

Yang pushed herself up, letting out a sheepish laugh and rubbing her head.

"Ahehe… Guess I got so excited I forgot I was a cripple…" Shaking his head, Jaune helped her up back onto the bed, and she pointed across the room to the same desk that filled every bedroom of the mansion. "Grab me that box over there."

He did as requested, picking up the closed box to bring it over.

His lip curled.

"Umm, Yang?" he said slowly as he sat down and placed the box in front of Yang. "It, uhh… Why does it smell kinda-"

"That, my two-legged Human friend, is the smell… of science!"

She dramatically yoinked off the lid, tossing it behind, and she held up what she'd been hiding inside.

Jaune recoiled and held a hand under his nose.

"Oh, Jesus, Yang! Is that… the rest of your tail?"

It was definitely her tail. Her day-old, slightly decomposed, paling tail.

He ripped his eyes away from the disturbing sight in her hand, and he looked to Yang, who was wearing a devilish grin.

"Pretty cool, right?" she asked, bobbing her brows, and Jaune returned an incredulous stare.

"No! Why do you have this?"

Yang's enthusiasm did not falter.

"Cause I heard if you pour salt on it, it'll freak out and start dancing or something!"

"What...? What else do you have in there?"

She reached inside, pulling out another item and happily displaying it for Jaune.

"Salt!"

It was a little, fancy salt shaker, likely snatched from the downstairs dining room. With the slightest of morbid curiosity, he watched as she took off the cap and began to dump a generous portion into her scaly hand, grinning like a mad scientist.

"... Uhh, not to rain on the parade, Yang, but-"

"I don't wanna hear about your pride parade," she cut in, waving him off. "Feast your unworthy eyes on this!"

With a graceful wave of her hand, she doused the severed appendage in a shower of sodium and watched as the magic started to happen…

…

..

.

Or not…

Her excitement melted into an adorable pout.

"… Why isn't it working?"

"Well, I was going to say I'm pretty sure it's been too long already to have any kind of reaction to salt," he told her, earning himself a pointed look.

"Hey, don't try to logic me, buddy."

Jaune let out a small laugh as he stood from the bed and started to back out towards the door.

"Alright, well, thank you for this, Yang. Really. Thank you for the show, but I think I'm gonna go head back downstairs and hope that Ruby hasn't burned our lunch yet."

"Oh- Wait! That reminds me!… Come here, friend." Her tone was suddenly very calm, and she crooked her finger, beckoning him closer. Suspicious, Jaune sharpened his eyes, but decided to indulge her anyway, slowly approaching until he was at her bedside. "Closer," she whispered with a sweet smile. Jaune eyed her up and down, but leaned in.

Yang leaned in as well, her warm breaths grazing Jaune's cheek as she cupped a hand and put her lips right next to his ear as if to tell a dirty secret that belonged to no one else.

And then, with the other hand, she snuck a devastating punch right into his abdomen.

Jaune was pushed back, but was able to keep a knee under him while he let out a guttural groaning. He looked up to Yang, who was smiling a very satisfied smile.

"That," she started, "was for hitting Ruby last night. No hard feelings though."

"... Right," Jaune coughed out. "No hard feelings..." He rose to his feet and hobbled to the door. "I'm just gonna… go throw up in the bathroom now…"

"Okie doke!" Yang proceeded to lounge back down on the bed, fluffing up pillows and making herself comfortable. "Let me know when lunch is ready!"

Before heading downstairs to continue prepping lunch (not that he had much of an appetite anymore), Jaune dragged himself through and directly across the hallway into the bathroom.

Hunched over and clenching his stomach, he rested his forearm on the counter to take a breather and make sure he wasn't going to vomit. Once he had at least somewhat of a grasp on his gag reflex, he raised his head again.

Blake was in the mirror.

"OH GOD DAMN!" Jaune spun around to see Blake staring with her familiar, expressionless gaze and standing just a little too close. Jaune leaned back, bumping into the counter. "S-Sorry, Blake!... I didn't realize anyone was in here..." Blake neither said nor did anything. Instead, with weapon in hand, she just stood idly watching his awkward fidgeting. "Do you, uhh… Do you always carry your scythe everywhere?"

Again, Blake said nothing. Behind her blindfold, piercing gold eyes found blue, but her gaze flitted away as her lips curled into a shy smile while she turned to open the door.

"Umm..."

Any coherent words slipped his grasp though, and he noticed a blooming flush to Blake's cheeks as she simply exited the room.

What just happened?

She acted like an absolutely smitten schoolgirl just now. And was she staying with them now? If not, why was she here?

Jaune guessed he might not like the answer...

While the idea did make him beyond nervous, it didn't seem like Blake was actively trying to hurt him or his friends, and it looked like there was a softer side of her sometimes when she wasn't trying to be terrifying... Or maybe that aura of terror was just natural.

And then there was the question of what Blake said earlier. Just who exactly was coming?

"Hey, guys?" Ruby's voice called loudly from downstairs. "There's a lot of people in really cool clothes surrounding the house outside."

Uh oh.

Forgetting his pained abdomen immediately, Jaune rushed out and down the stairs. Ruby had the velvety curtains pulled back and was peeping out the window.

"Ruby, what's-"

The glass of the window shattered as a small, cylindrical object crashed through it, landing between them. Ruby quickly withdrew into her shell, but Jaune was only able to take a short step back before he was subjected to the flash grenade's blinding light and deafening explosion.

Jaune was somehow able to stay on his feet, but, even though unable to see or hear, he could feel the grip of several gloved hands pushing and shoving him, wrestling him face-down to the ground and securing his hands behind his back with handcuffs.

His vision and hearing were coming back to him as someone's knee pressed into his back, and there was another somewhat tall girl in a dark, geared-out uniform similar to a SWAT officer standing over him. She had a gun pointed to his face as she liberally threw around orders.

Being the only one without a helmet, Jaune could see she had brown, medium-length hair with one long, lighter-colored strand hanging on the side, and a very thin layer of fur coating the majority of her skin. Somewhat similarly to Blake, shaggy canine ears rested atop her head, draping slightly forward, and, instead of wearing normal officer's boots, her rather large, bare wolf's feet were covered in nothing but dark fur; not that she'd probably be able to even wear any kind of footwear with the way those long, sharp, black claws extended from them, scratching up the hardwood floor.

A pair of expensive looking sunglasses, a bushy wolf's tail swaying between her legs, and a seemingly permanent glare all completed her intimidating and feral appearance.

Jaune looked around, getting a look at the slew of different kinds of Monster girls in uniform chaotically invading and spreading throughout their home with assault rifles and handguns in an unorganized fashion.

His heart rake spiked further. Knowing his friends, he was scared to death that they'd try to put up a fight, even against military-style tactics and weaponry.

Weiss and Yang emerged from their respective hallways simultaneously, both on high alert from all the commotion.

"Monster Girl Police Department!" one of them shouted, pointing her rifle at Weiss who was holding her weapon. "Get on the fucking ground! Now!" To Jaune's immense relief, Weiss dropped her sword and begrudgingly put her hands up, but not without first sparing an indignant scowl.

Even still, she was basically tackled and thrown to the ground, yelling and deriding the police all the while.

Upstairs, Yang was also aggressively slammed down to the ground, but she didn't let that curb her challenging smirk. She peeked over the open balcony through the bars of the safety rail, catching Jaune's worried gaze as the police struggled to secure her into her own cuffs.

"Guess we're not tickling the balls today, huh, Jaune?" she called down. "We're just going right into adventure! Ow-" Yang bared her teeth up at her captors. "Hey, I am a cripple! I demand special treatment!"

Back downstairs, an officer with large, brown and white rabbit ears and rabbit-like feet hopped over to approach the girl that held Jaune at gunpoint.

"The area's secured, Captain Adel. There's no one else in the house, but no sign of the signal's source yet either."

The signal's source? What did that mean? And where exactly was Blake in all this? Apparently, she was getting out no worse for wear.

"Right. Keep looking," the captain responded, receiving a nod.

A scared squeak of Ruby's caught Jaune's ear, and he turned his head. Two officers were yelling at her, pointing their guns into the top hole of the shell in an attempt to coerce her out.

"Come out of the shell now, or we're throwing a flash bang in there!" one of them screamed.

Ruby let out another yelp as one of the officers slammed the butt-end of their rifle against her carapace.

"Ahh! If this is because I took a naughty picture of myself with Jaune's phone, I won't do it again!"

The officer's hand began to reach for something on her utility belt, and Jaune grit his teeth. Either these officers weren't trained properly, or they were vicious, because, if they were going to make good on their threat of tossing a flash grenade in Ruby's shell, she would undoubtedly be horrifically injured.

"Ruby!"

Jaune was able to manage slipping one of his knees under him, using its strength to begin lifting him up despite the person on top of him trying to shove him back down. Captain Adel quickly took notice, taking a step back and ordering him to surrender.

Though, he was unable to act calmly anymore, and he kept rising, somehow finding enough strength within him to shove the other person off.

Hands still bound, he rushed the officers harassing Ruby, but he didn't get very far before the captain stepped in front of him, pistol whipping Jaune in the side of the head.

A loud slam right next to his ears jolted Jaune awake in his chair.

It was a furry fist that made the noise, clenching ever so tightly on the table Jaune had just been resting his head on. The fist belonged to the only other person in the tiny room, Captain Adel.

Where was he? And why was his head so fuzzy? His blue eyes quickly scanned the room.

A concrete floor, one table, a few wooden chairs, a lamp light shining right into his face, and a single mirror in one of the featureless, gray walls...

An interrogation room.

It smelled like sweat.

Jaune could feel the painful pounding of his pulse through his temples, and it hurt even just trying to remember what had happened. He brought his hand up to try to soothe his pounding head, or he wanted to anyway, but his hands were still cuffed behind him. He glared daggers at the girl who was watching him behind designer sunglasses.

"Where's Ruby? Is she-"

"Shut the fuck up!" The captain smashed her fist back onto the table as she brought her face merely inches away from his, baring her fangs. "I'm asking the questions here, you got that?"

Jaune leaned away from her volatile temper, not giving up too much space as he didn't want to have his question go ignored, but also not wanting to answer hers.

Luckily, he wouldn't have to answer that question, as the captain's focus was pulled when the lone door to the room opened and that Rabbit Monster officer from earlier entered, carrying a little tray with a sandwich on it. She had shed her gear already. In fact, they both had, instead now wearing more professional clothing suited for an office job, though, the captain's attire was still impeccably fashionable.

The newest girl set the tray down in front of Jaune with an awkward smile and sat in the chair opposite him, thankfully getting the captain to sit as well.

Jaune eyed the piece of food suspiciously. It looked like a simple ham and cheese on wheat.

"Eat it," the captain said impatiently, leaning forward.

The other girl held a hand in front of the captain's shoulder.

"Now, now, Coco. Did you even introduce yourself yet?" Captain Adel kept holding her pointed look at Jaune before letting out a frustrated breath as she sat back again, crossing her arms. Flipping her ears out of the way, the Rabbit Monster looked at Jaune. "I'm Lieutenant Velvet Scarlatina, and this is Captain Coco Adel."

Jaune didn't care, neither for their names, or their stupid good cop-bad cop routine.

"Where's Ruby? Where are my friends?"

Coco abruptly stood up, lurching forward again to grab Jaune by the shirt.

"I don't give a damn about your hostages! What I want to know is why exactly a dirty Human is on my island kidnapping innocent girls!"

Hostages? Kidnapping?

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Jaune felt his feet leaving the ground just before being slammed down on his back onto the table.

"Don't play dumb, shithead!" she screamed in his face again. "We get a tip for abnormal activity at your house, and what do we find? A Human trafficker, two girls with black eyes, and another girl whose tail's literally been dismembered!"

"I told you already, th-"

"Not to mention, we found the girl's actual, rottingtail in a box for safekeeping! You're one sick fuck..."

"She put it in there herself! And one of the girls is literally my wife!"

Coco glowered down at him like he was the stupidest person she'd ever seen.

"Oh, really? Which one, the Elf? And how'd that marriage happen?"

"I-… Uhh…" Remembering that story, Jaune thought it best to just keep quiet about it as it seemed Coco already had an idea. "Listen, they are my friends! They will back me up! Just talk to them!"

"So we've got a case of Stock Market Syndrome then."

Jaune blinked up at her.

"... You… You mean Stockholm Syndrome?"

Canine nostrils flared in rage. She slung him across the table, sending him careening straight off onto the floor. Velvet moved in front of Coco and held her, blocking her from continuing her assault.

"I'm not playing your fucking games, kid!" Coco yelled. "You're going away for a long time!"

Jaune used the wall for support as he staggered to his feet.

"Look, don't I get a lawyer or something? I have rights!"

"Not even in your dreams, shitbag! You're not a citizen here, terrorists have no rights!"

"Coco," Velvet said softly, trying to calm her down.

"Do you know what they're going to do to you in prison!?"

"Coco."

"No, fuck him!"

"Coco!"

She then gently pushed Coco towards the corner of the room, murmuring something too quiet for Jaune to make out.

Instantly relaxing, Coco ducked her head with a blush and snaked an arm around Velvet's hip to embrace her tenderly whispering perhaps a bit too loudly for the tiny room they were in.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry, babe."

Velvet's shoulders tensed up, and she shot Jaune a quick, embarrassed glance before whispering something inaudible again.

"Don't worry," Coco responded. "Humans are basically deaf, not to mention stupid. There's no way he can hear us."

Jaune rolled his eyes and slumped down in his chair.

Apparently convinced, Velvet spoke slightly loud enough for Jaune to hear.

"... Are you sure?"

"Of course. The kid's a total moron."

Velvet seemed to relax a bit as well, her own little, fluffy bunny tail fluttering as she let her hands rest against Coco's upper chest in the embrace.

"Alright, well, is it my turn to be the bad cop?"

Like a lover tiptoeing around her answer, Coco's gaze drifted away.

"I don't know…"

"Come on, you never let me be the bad cop," Velvet whined, puffing out her bottom lip, and Coco snuggled her a bit closer.

"How about I let you be the bad cop tonight?" A furious blush overtook Velvet (and Jaune) as Coco continued, bobbing her brows, "We can even go buy those fuzzyhandcuffs you've been wanting to try on me."

Jaune had overheard enough.

He cleared his throat obnoxiously, earning Coco's unimpressed glare from over her shades.

"If we're going to be here all day," Coco started, leading Velvet out in hand. "You should make yourself comfortable."

They left and closed the door behind them, likely leaving Jaune to plague his own mind in silent solitude with the fears of what might be coming soon.

He sighed.

"Jaune."

Jaune nearly jumped out of his fucking skin as he looked to his left to find Blake casually sitting right beside him, her expression as plain and unreadable as ever, and yet still able to easily make quick work of Jaune's composure.

"What the fucking-... How do you keep doing that?" he asked, trying to keep his voice down.

Blake's ears perked up with curiosity.

"Doing what?"

A conceding breath escaped him.

"… Never mind. Listen, have you seen the others? Is Ruby okay?"

It was subtle, but Jaune didn't miss how her expression soured.

"... She's fine. She came out of her shell when Jaune was hurt."

"Wait... you were there?"

"Of course," she assured, reaching a hand out to show Jaune's cheek affection. "Blake would never leave Jaune behind."

"Right," he said stiffly. "... Of course."

"Blake has a plan to free Jaune."

"... You do?"

"Yes." Blake took back her hand and stood up to face the door with a look of determination. She gripped her scythe tightly. "Blake will kill them, and Jaune will 'make a break for it,' as they say."

Every kind of alarm possible went off in Jaune's head.

"What!? No, no, no! You can't just kill them!" he whisper-shouted.

She turned back to him inquisitively.

"Why? It would be easy."

"Are you insane? Murder is not something to be considered so casually!"

"But they hurt Jaune."

"Yes, but that doesn't make them bad people, Blake. You can't just go around killing whoever you want."

"Why not?"

"Why not...?" he parroted incredulously."What, are you the Terminator? You just can't, Blake. What happened to that compassion you had for Emerald? Where'd that go?"

Blake's ears wilted at the question.

"That... That was different. Blake did not want Emerald's soul to haunt her home..." Her frown faded, and her smile reappeared as if recalling a fond memory. "But then... Jaune invited Blake into his home."

Jaune's head pulled a small retreat.

"What? No I didn't."

"Yes. Jaune was giving 'the bedroom eyes,' as they say."

"I-I... did no such thing!"

The door opened, and the two police Monsters walked in with cups in hand, filling the room with the heavenly aroma of hazelnut coffee.

However, the scent went unnoticed to Jaune, as he was frozen in place, his gaze darting in a panic between a still expressionless Blake and the police. Coco eyed Jaune suspiciously from behind her shades.

"You know we can hear you talking to yourself out there, right?"

Jaune's mouth worked wordlessly, and he shot Blake a baffled side-glance.

"They cannot see or hear Blake right now," Blake said.

"Don't think you can get off easy by pleading insanity, shit head," Coco said as she sat down with Velvet. "I know exactly what you're trying to-"

"Coco, please," Velvet cut in. "Jaune, walk us through this. How and why are you on this island?"

Though he was trying to keep his eyes directly off of Blake as he began to talk, his focus did not completely stray away from her as she slowly made her way behind the unsuspecting women.

"Oh, uhh… Right… walk you through it," he parroted absently. Like a baseball player up next at bat, Blake lifted her scythe, leveling the aim of her blade right where the women's heads met their bodies. She was going to do it… She was actually going to murder them all for his sake. "Well, umm, you see… it's kind of complicated."

Jaune emphatically and almost imperceptibly shook his head in an attempt to dissuade the overzealous Neko Reaper. It went ignored, however.

"Well," Velvet said. "Can you start from the beginning?"

Blake sharpened her eyes and started to wind up a swing.

"NOOO!" he screamed, finding himself standing suddenly as Blake froze pre-swing, eyeing Jaune with a confused, tilted head. Coco was also out of her chair with a hand resting ready on her holstered gun, and Velvet sat wide-eyed.

Jaune cleared his throat as he awkwardly reseated himself.

"I mean, uhh... Yes."

They both watched him for a moment, and Coco tossed Velvet a side glance.

"Maybe this guy is a fruit loop," she whispered loudly.

The door opened again, and a very professional looking Monster woman with long, black hair strode in, chin held high with confident purpose. Though, that purpose was unknown to even Coco and Velvet, if their confused faces were of any indication.

"Uhh, mam…?" Velvet said as politely as possible. "I don't think you can be in here."

The woman walked to Jaune's side of the table, opening her coat to briefly flash everyone some kind of badge.

"I assure you I can," she calmly said, taking a proper seat next to Jaune. She briefly studied him with magenta eyes.

Trying to convince himself that the young woman's massive bosom and curvy figure were not the first things Jaune noticed about her, he returned his own curious gaze.

A Panda…

She was definitely a Panda Monster.

Sure, the big patches of black that were surrounding her eyes and sharply contrasting her pale skin could've been mistaken for raccoon features or something, but there was no doubt with those black, fuzzy, rounded ears sticking straight up, and the furry, clawed bear paws that replaced Human hands and feet. Uncharacteristic for a panda though, she had a pink streak in her hair.

She was totally adorable.

Jaune gave Blake a subtle, questioning glance, and she merely shrugged.

"I am Supervisory Special Agent Lie Ren of the MiB," the Panda Monster explained as if she'd done so a thousand times. "Approximately fifty-three minutes ago, I was informed that the local Monster Girl P.D. had interfered with an investigation of ours by raiding and subsequently arresting one of our agents- " She waved her hand towards Jaune. "Ms. Jane Artio."

Jaune's brows scrunched so hard he almost hurt himself.

Miss Ren turned to him.

"Isn't that right, Special Agent Artio?"

"Uhh…" He mechanically looked to Coco and Velvet. "… Yes…"

"The MiB..." Velvet mumbled while thinking to herself. "I've never heard of that organization before. What is it?"

"That's classified," Miss Ren answered.

"Wait, wait, wait," Coco said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "So you're telling me… that this fucking guy… is not actually a fucking guy…"

"Not even a Human. Special Agent Artio is merely a Doppelganger Monster that has simply taken on the appearance of a Human male, for the sake of her objective of course."

When Miss Ren didn't continue, Coco leaned in.

"… Which is…?"

"Classified."

Coco scoffed, eyeing Jaune. "Tch, well if she really is a Doppelganger, then she shouldn't have a problem reverting back to her normal form to prove it, right?"

"Not possible," Miss Ren quickly countered. "She cannot reveal her true appearance because, as I'm sure you ladies know, a Doppelganger will not be able to duplicate a given form unless she comes into direct physical contact with the target again- Something that would be quite difficult for us."

"Why?" Velvet asked.

"Also classified."

Coco threw her hands up in frustration and slapped them back down on the table.

"Oh, come on! Do you really expect us to believe this bullshit!?"

"It doesn't matter if you believe it or not," Miss Ren said, her calm, concise words combating Coco's hostile attitude quite well. "You have no authority to keep her or myself here any longer. I am only giving you an explanation out of courtesy." She rose out of her chair, straightening her coat and giving a nod to Jaune to stand as well. "Now then, I'm sure a swift exit is in our immediate future once my agent is out of those cuffs, lest I have a word with your supervisor about this momentous error."

Jaune traded awkward looks between the three when a seething Coco didn't stand to uncuff him, but, thankfully, Velvet did.

He rubbed his reddened, yet liberated wrists, and Miss Ren opened the door. Jaune tried to follow, but a sudden grip on his forearm kept him in place. He turned, seeing Coco holding him.

"If you're actually a Monster like us, then you don't have a Human's terrible sense of hearing. So then tell me, what were me and Velvet whispering about earlier? There's no doubt you would've heard us."

"You don't have to answer that," he heard Miss Ren say.

But, it was completely beyond his power to hold back the absolutely shit-eating grin that tugged at his lips.

"Well…" he drawled. "I didn't want to embarrass you or anything, but I bet a fuzzy pair of handcuffs would look great on you."

He felt the grip on his arm weaken, and Coco was stunned beyond words as Velvet hid her mortified face in her hands.

Miss Ren didn't hide her slightly confused smirk either.

"I'm sure that if Ms. Artio keeps whatever little secret that was, then we could skip any tedious paperwork, right?"

Velvet nodded emphatically behind her fingers, her ears bobbing up and down. A grin still stuck to his face, Jaune left the room with Miss Ren (and Blake) in tow.

It would take a little bit of waiting in the lobby, but all his friends were eventually released to finally meet up with him. Yang, rolling up in an oversized wheelchair, smirked devilishly and looked to the nearest officer while pointing at Jaune.

"Hey, don't fall for whatever this guy here says, he's bad news. Like, he for sure kicks kitties."

The police woman gasped at him with affronted disgust.

Jaune rolled his eyes as he, with Ruby's assistance, helped Yang up.

"Not the time, Yang."

The air and radiant daylight outside were a very welcomed change to the gloom of the inside of a jail. As refreshing as it was, there were a lot of questions about this young woman who had basically saved him for whatever reason. Ruby was curious as well as she seemed to look to him as if to ask just what was going on. Not that Jaune really had much of a clue himself as to who she was… Or why they were all following her through the parking lot… Or where they were even headed…

"I swear, Jaune," Yang whispered, eyeing up their new companion. "Every time we leave you unsupervised for even a minute, you come back with another girlfriend."

Ignoring her playful jab, his gaze also rested upon the woman.

He noticed Miss Ren repeatedly looking back towards the station with a subtle nervousness, and a bead of sweat dripping down her temple - A crack in her cool facade.

"Uhh, Miss Ren?" Jaune asked, earning a glance.

"I'll explain things later," she said quickly. "Right now we need to hurry. It's only a matter of time before they figure out that my badge is from a children's toy store, and that the MiB is actually-"

"HEY!"

They all stopped and looked back to see Coco shouting at them all the way from atop the police station front steps.

"The MiB is actually from that dumbass movie, Men in Black! Get your asses back here!"

Miss Ren grabbed Jaune's shoulder.

"Run."

Jaune's eyes blew up as he watched Miss Ren take off.

"What...!?"

Thinking quickly, Weiss conjured up a spell to lay down a path of ice on the pavement in front of them. Shoving Yang along the icy bed allowed them to speedily slide over to Miss Ren, who was hurrying into the driver's side of an SUV.

"Get in!" she called, but before they were all able to pile themselves in, a bullet shot from Coco's gun cracked through the day, and their ride leaned to one side as a back tire deflated. "Get out!"

If he wasn't was too busy being scared for his and his friends' lives, Jaune would've been impressed with Coco's marksman aim.

He hopped out to help Yang, but the Wolf girl was running on all fours and would be on them far too soon.

"Go," Blake commanded, putting herself in between Jaune and the incoming Coco. "Blake will hold her off!"

Jaune wavered with uncertainty, and he found himself a little nervous about what she might've been planning to do…

She glanced back at him.

"Blake will not kill her…"

Jaune smiled.

"… Thank you, Blake."

With the flick of an ear and an apparent blush, Blake turned to face him entirely.

"Blake loves Jaune too," she said and dramatically threw herself at Jaune to kiss him with everything she had. Her lips were pleasantly soft, and he was doing all he could to not completely melt into them at a time like this. Her kiss was aggressive, greedy, and her sharp fangs nipped and pulled at his own bottom lip.

Jaune was loudly pushed back up against the SUV, right next to Ruby, who was getting Yang out.

Ruby gasped.

"They're connecting at the lips!" she whispered.

Weiss came around the side of the vehicle.

"He said 'thank you,' not 'I love you,'" she growled, but her words fell on deaf ears.

Blake broke the kiss. Panting slightly with lipstick smeared, she gave another longing look before turning and charging towards Coco.

Nonplussed, Jaune finally snapped out of it when Weiss slapped him and tugged on his hand.

"Come on, you idiot!"

Miss Ren led them onto the sidewalk and down the busy street, cars honking at them. Of course, their group attracted all manner of pedestrian eyes, and those eyes inevitably fell on him specifically. Faces of surprise, fear, disgust, loathing- all aimed at the sight of a Human. An outlier.

He knew it was silly, but why did those looks send boiling shame flowing through his blood?

He shook his head, forcing himself to instead focus on their safety, but, even as he kept his face down, leaving an icy trail wasn't exactly subtle.

"In here!" Miss Ren called, leading them down an alleyway up to the tall fence of a junkyard. "We can hide in here."

Jaune looked over the fence that may as well have been a mountain.

"Yeah, but how are we gonna get in? We can't climb it, Yang's too-" He paused, chancing a cautious glance to Yang, who was already glaring at him. "-hurt… She's hurt."

Weiss scoffed and wasted no time using her magic to obliterate an opening into the fence, and Jaune cringed... A huge hole was also not very subtle...

Regardless, they went in.

As one could expect a junkyard to be, story-high piles of junk, heaps of scrap metal, and plenty of old, forlorn cars were scattered throughout the lot.

Making their way through the maze of garbage, a Wolf's howl was heard nearby along with the metal crinkling of someone following through the fence, undoubtedly Coco…

But, if she was already here, then what did that mean for Blake? She must've easily been dealt with. Blake was so god damn scary sometimes that Jaune hadn't even considered the chance that she might lose the encounter.

They hurried along, climbing over and lying down to hide behind the other side of a particularly tall hill of metals and scraps.

"Blake is sorry," he heard Blake's tired, sorrowful voice right behind him, and he jumped again. Her eyes were downcast, and she was looking quite a bit worse for wear with disheveled hair, claw marks in her dress, and even a small drop of blood dripping from one of her sad ears. "Without killing the Wolf girl, Blake was unable to stop her and has failed… Blake understands if Jaune never wants to see her again…"

Jaune's lips tugged into a soft frown, and something compelled him to rest a hand on her arm.

"What? Blake, don't say that. Of course I still want to see you."

He froze.

Did he really just say that? To Blake of all people? The same girl that had him quivering in fear just under her touch? The same girl that thought it would be okay to murder a couple police officers? The same girl that literally perspires death?

But she had been looking so distraught just then…! And she only tried to help! It just didn't sit well with Jaune, he couldn't help but to say something to cheer her up.

Though, now she was looking a little too happy at his words…

Way too happy.

Jaune quickly redirected his full attention the other way back to Weiss, but, in his hasty repositioning, he managed to rest his hand on something metal, accidentally clicking some button and bringing to life a cheery, yet disturbing voice under him that sounded like it was coming over an old, beat up radio speaker, clouded with static.

"Pennybot activating."

They all looked down, realizing that among the pile of scraps and garbage beneath them was a rundown robot girl… thing… And Jaune had a hand lying directly on its 'stomach' where some kind of control module was open and exposed.

Its eyes fluttered open.

"Analysis report: primary systems critically damaged – primary battery critically damaged - backup solar cells damaged and operating at minimal efficiency – battery remaining: eighteen percent,"

As it continued spitting out a tangent of random technical jargon, Weiss reached over to cover its mouth.

"Shut this thing up, you dolt, or Coco will find us again!"

"Uhh-" His panicked focus dropped down to the smorgasbord of switches and knobs. His hands floundered around, mashing on every button he could find like his little sisters did when he played fighting games with them.

…

It didn't help.

"Options select – Language changed to Spanish – Te gustarìa guardar tus- Options have been reverted - WARNING: experimental RPG simulation reactivated. Integration commencing in three, two, one-"

The robot's whole body began to shake violently as a blinding green light burst out from its eyes, and Jaune was assaulted with the weirdest feeling he'd ever experienced, like his entire existence was being sucked into the robot. He resisted, holding back with all his might as he watched his friends be pulled into and subsequently engulfed by the robot. In the end, though, it was too strong.

He was falling…

Why was he falling?

Squinting through the cold, loud wind rushing passed his ears, he could barely make out the sight of the fast-approaching, green land of grass under him before gravity slammed him into it.

It wasn't long after rolling himself over onto his back that he saw Yang raining down from the heavens just as he had… falling directly on top of him.

But it didn't hurt that much.

In fact, there was no pain at all. He actually felt pretty good.

Really good.

… That might've been a bad sign.

Maybe he was dead? Perhaps his spine was severed? Could all of his bones have disintegrated into dust upon Yang's impact with him?

Not that he thought she was fat or anything!

"Oh my god!" Yang hastily climbed off of him to lean at his side. "Jaune, are you okay!?"

Jaune sat up slowly, curling his fingers and toes to make sure they were still responsive. They were.

"I think I'm okay," he said as he stood, confirming that his bones were still intact. "Actually… I've never felt better." On a whim, he bent down to scoop his arms under a still-sitting Yang, and, to her surprise, he effortlessly lifted her up into a bridal carry, which served to tint her cheeks with a little pink. "Light as a feather," he mumbled incredulously.

Marveling at his sudden onset of herculean strength, they hadn't even noticed the rest of their group approaching them.

"Whoa~!" Ruby called. "How are you doing that?"

Jaune huffed an unbelieving laugh.

"I don't know!"

"Uhh," Yang started, clearing her throat and pointing at the top of his head. "Maybe it has something to do with your new 'do'?"

Jaune's brow quirked.

"My what?"

"Your hair."

"… What about it?"

Yang's lips were tight, holding back a laugh.

"Well… it's, uhh, kinda looking a little-"

"Absurd," Weiss pitched in, using her magic to summon a small sheet of perfectly flat ice. Yang grabbed the sheet and held it up in front of Jaune to use as a mirror.

His head pulled a startled retreat.

"What the hell?" His hair was massive in size. Arches of giant, spiky, blonde hair erupted from his head and hung down like an incredibly exaggerated anime shonen protagonist. Now that he thought of it, his hair did feel heavier than usual. "Okay, what and how?"

"I don't know," Yang said, smiling at his new 'do'. "But my curiosity is definitely aroused." She reached up to wrap her fingers around one of the dangling spikes. It was surprisingly hard. Yang seemed to think so as well as she began to… sort of… stroke the stiff rod of hair suggestively with a grin.

"Yang, stop," Jaune deadpanned.

"Oh, yeah. You like that, don't you?"

He shook her hand out of his face, and Weiss let out an exasperated sigh.

"Can we stop talking about your ridiculous hair and move on to something more concerning like where in the world we are?"

"That would be appropriate, given our unusual circumstances," Miss Ren said. "We seem to be out of danger of the police thanks to that robot, though whatever it did to us was very unpleasant."

"No," Jaune said as he took a step towards Miss Ren. "Before we talk about anything else, I want to know what's going on with you first. Who are you? Why did you help us? And why were the police after me?"

"Those are fair questions," she answered, nodding to herself. "The authorities traced a radio signal to your home. I assume it was your phone, as most Humans have one. When they found you, they suspected only ill will, as Humans have been known to cause trouble on Monster Girl Island from time to time.

"As I said before, my name is Lie Ren," she continued. "Though I do not belong to any kind of special organization like I told the police. I just owed a favor to an old friend, who seemed to be insistent on your continued safety."

"What…? Who?"

"I'm sorry, she made me promise to keep her identity secret, but I've no doubt her intentions are good."

Jaune frowned. Why in the world would anyone else be interested in him? It's not like he had any other friends on the island. Why did his circumstances have to be so confusing?

Thinking to himself, his absent gaze happened to notice Yang's searching stare. He looked to her as if to ask, 'what?'

"Sorry… It's just cute when you get all serious," she said as her smile bloomed.

Jaune's mouth worked futilely. Yang's words grew sincere on occasion, and those words came with their own ability to mentally disarm Jaune.

Cheeks flushed, he moved his focus to his surroundings, which were fascinating when he really noticed them. It was a marvelous, yet unsettling sight.

They all stood in an empty, featureless plain of grass that stretched for a vast amount of miles before reaching a mountain range. Except, that same exact mountain seemed to be around them entirely as if someone had somehow projected the same image over and over again somehow.

It didn't look real… It looked... two-dimensional?

Luckily, a very real village was within walking distance, and they decided to start the short trip, Jaune easily carrying Yang the entire way while she wiped Blake's smudged lipstick from his face.

Not so luckily, the village looked to be abandoned, though there were no signs of any kind of struggle. Many things seemed to be right where they belonged, but there were just no people to be found. Adding to the creep factor, the entire town looked like it was straight out of an old western, cowboy movie.

Jaune supposed he'd seen weirder things in the past few days, but the hairs on his neck still wouldn't stay down.

After separating into smaller groups, knocking on several doors, and even checking out a few public buildings in an attempt to find literally anyone, he and Ruby walked into one with a sign on the outside that read, 'Big-Nose Bertha's Steakhouse'. It was a simple, western sit-down restaurant, and they were surprised to see there was actually a lone Cow Monster woman standing behind the bar idly staring forward absently.

This must've been 'Big-Nose Bertha', which was a little disappointing because her nose was only mildly bigger than the average sniffer.

Jaune nudged Ruby and nodded towards the woman, a silent request for her to do the talking, Monster to Monster.

"Uhh, hi," Ruby said awkwardly as they approached.

The Monster mechanically peered to them and grinned.

"Hello!" she called out jovially, apparently unfazed by the Human in front of her. "Welcome to Big-Nose Bertha's! How can I help you brave adventurers today?"

Jaune and Ruby snuck each other a glance before Ruby continued.

"Could you tell us where we are, please?"

"You are at Big-Nose Bertha's," she answered simply, her smile unchanging. "What else can I help you with today?"

"N-No, I mean, like, what city are we in?"

"You are at Big-Nose Bertha's in West City. What else can I help you with today?"

Ruby turned to Jaune, her face laden with worry.

"Monster Girl Island doesn't have a West City."

That worry infected Jaune immediately, though, he made sure to not let himself panic. He wouldn't be surprised if this woman was a little off her rocker hanging out in an abandoned town.

"… Maybe we should just get some lunch here, and then try to get some more info later?" Jaune suggested, and Ruby nodded. It wasn't like they were in any kind of hurry, and their original lunch plans did get blown to hell. They turned back to Bertha, who was still staring at them, eagerly, yet eerily waiting for a reply.

"Table for six, please," Jaune said.

"Sorry," Bertha replied. "But we're completely booked right now! Make sure to drop by and check again soon though! What else can I help you with today?"

The pair looked back blankly at all the open tables, chairs, booths, and the complete lack of any customers whatsoever.

"Jaune," Blake said from suddenly being in the entrance's doorway, making his heart jump.

"Hello!" Bertha called to her. "Welcome to Big-Nose Bertha's! How can I help you brave adventurers today?"

Blake only gave her a moment's glance.

"Weiss found a local as well, but something is amiss. These people have no Life essence."

An uncomfortable chill darted through Jaune's body, and a theory hit him, one that could maybe explain what was happening, but...

No... it was far too ludicrous!

Jaune regarded the creepy woman again with a forced smile.

"We'll be leaving now… Thanks for your help."

"Be safe, adventurers!"

They exited and followed Blake as she floated a little ways down the street into another building. Yang was sitting by the front door on what looked like it used to be an old, wooden chair. It was broken now. She gave a sheepish wave. Weiss was busy rubbing her temples in frustration as she talked to a Peacock woman, and Miss Ren watched on, hiding an amused smile behind a fist.

"For the last time, NO! I am merely looking for information! Any information at all, and we will be on our way!"

With a big, goofy grin, the woman replied, "Ah, yes! We have plenty of wares to choose from for you brave adventurers!"

Weiss let out a deep growl and shoved the Peacock up against the wall.

"Listen to me, you flamboyantly-tailed knuckle dragger! I am about two seconds away from shoving my sword-"

"Weiss!" Jaune called, getting her attention. "I don't think anyone's home." He nodded towards the woman, and Weiss looked at her again, finding that same, unchanging, hollow smile despite the obvious threat of physical harm.

Clearly disturbed, Weiss slowly let go and backed away, and the woman returned to where she had been standing before.

"What else can I help you with today?"

They all just looked at her blankly, unsure how to answer or if it would even do any good.

This person... wasn't actually a person... Much like that Cow woman, she seemed more like a robot.

It was surreal…

But not as surreal as a moment later when a giant, orange-haired girl emerged from the store's backroom and used a huge hammer to calmly bludgeon the Peacock lady from behind, killing her instantly.

They all jumped back, and Ruby started screaming.

As tall as this new girl was, which was quite a bit taller than Jaune, her toned muscles were equally impressive all the way down to her calves that transformed into hooves. She looked like the final boss of a medieval fantasy game, wearing her pink, metal shoulder pads with incredibly detailed dragons embedded into the designs, white and black chest piece with way too big of a heart-shaped hole over the cleavage, and pink battle-skirt with a black trim.

A large pair of white angel wings rested on her back, though they were looking a little rugged like they might've been missing a few feathers. Sticking out from under the backside of her skirt was a long, thick, dark tail wagging around with a pink bow tied to it. It appeared reptilian like Yang's, except much smoother and without scales. Her green eyes were unique in that there wasn't much of a pupil, but multiple dark rings that expanded out from the center, very similar to the rings of a tree trunk.

Nothing about her seemed to suggest a specific type of animal that she might represent. She was just a big girl with hooves, wings, a tail, weird eyes, and lots of badass armor.

As Ruby was screaming, the giant leaned in, staring at her as if completely and utterly baffled by her mere existence. Jaune clamped a hand over Ruby's mouth, which only served to mildly stifle the sound.

"Incredible," Weiss murmured, wide-eyed and gawking. "It's... It's a-"

"Valkyrie…" Blake growled under her breath, and Jaune saw the way Blake's own tail was bristled in agitation. "They're supposed to have been extinct for a hundred years now."

"Hey, you stink, pal!" the Valkyrie shot, putting Blake even more on edge. "And I'm not a... val-keer-ree, or whatever you said. I'm a… a, uhh…" Lost for words, she looked behind her, pulling back the hem of her skirt to get a closer look at something before turning back with an accomplished grin. She jabbed a thumb into her chest. "I'm a Nora!"

Jaune's brows creased.

"Did… Did you just check your underwear for your name?"

"Well, duh!" she drawled, rolling her eyes at the apparently stupid question as she bent down to casually dig her hands through the dead woman's pockets. "Where do you put your name for when you forget it?"

"… I, uhh… I don't? Also, what are you doing?"

"Well you're just full of the smarty pantsy questions, huh?" She pulled out some coins and stuffed them into her own pockets. "I'm making money!"

"But you just murdered that lady!" Ruby said, stepping forward.

At that, Nora just blew up into unbridled laughter, much to Ruby's annoyance. Only when she was finally done wiping away her tears she looked at Ruby. "Don't worry, she'll be back after a while! They always come back."

"But that's crazy! People don't just come back!"

"HEY, don't call me crazy!" Nora shouted, her laughter replaced with wild eyes as she moved towards Ruby to grab her by the shoulders. Ruby sank into herself while everyone else adopted a defensive stance, ready to step in. "I'm telling you, none of these people are real, kid! Nothing is reeeeeeaaal!"

With a look of terror, Ruby's voice squeaked.

"Jaune, I'm scared."

"You should be," Nora whispered intensely. "You should be…"

"It's okay, Ruby," Jaune said as he slowly pulled her back by the shell, putting himself in front of her. "I think she's actually harmless…"

"Harmless!?" Nora wailed, now focused on Jaune. "I'll have you know I'm level ninety-seven, bub! What level are you people!?" She paused, her anger dissolving over a fraction of a moment. "Wait a second…" Her gaze drifted across their group one by one before she turned back to Jaune with wide eyes. She poked him in the chest as if suddenly realizing she'd never seen another person before. "Are you… Are you people-people…?"

Jaune eyed the finger.

"… Uhh, last I checked, we were pretty people-ly people…"

Nora's face lit up like a child's on Christmas morning, and she screamed in excitement as she ran to the backroom she originally came out of, bumping one of her wings into the doorway.

"Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! It's happening!" Jaune could hear as he shared a glance with his group. Nora came running back out, her hooves stomping into the ground that had so many of the same imprints already. She chucked a duffle bag onto the floor and started digging through it. "There was something in here, I'm pretty sure! Something I needed for this exact moment! Stay calm, Nora! Stay calm!" she kept saying while tossing out all kinds of things that couldn't possibly have all fit in the bag.

Food, clothes, uncapped canteens of water, old fruit, a wedge of cheese, various pieces of more armor, and an entire statue of a knight with a plaque at the bottom that read, 'To the Hero of South City, Nora Valkyrie'.

"Aha!"

Apparently, she had found what she was looking for- A crumpled up piece of paper…

She unraveled it, accidentally dropping it and batting it around as she tried to catch it. Finally, with a firm grip, she held it up to Jaune's face.

"Say the words I wrote down, please," she said, suddenly trying to keep her voice calm.

Jaune narrowed his eyes at the words on the page that made minimal sense to him. Nora's hands were shaking.

"Why?"

"JUST-!" she blurted, almost stomping a hole through the floorboards, but she was able to reign in her emotions. "Just… please…"

What was with that look she was giving him? Her eyes kept darting away, as if scared they would accidentally reveal their true purpose.

Jaune was nervous.

Why was he nervous? It was just a little, dumb written text on a torn, aged piece of paper, looking like it'd even been drooled on at some point. There was nothing to be worried about.

Even still, with shoulders tensed, he peered over to his team for support, all of which were unanimously shaking their head aside from Blake, who was still glaring at Nora.

Jaune looked at the paper again.

"Penny…" he read aloud, and Nora began nodding furiously in encouragement. "... Run command- restart game." Nora gasped and held her breath.

A loud, disembodied girl's voice reached their ears through the open door, the windows, seemingly from everywhere, yet nowhere at the same time.

"Are you sure?" the voice asked.

Nora happily screamed her lungs out.

"YES!"

What happened next Jaune couldn't quite comprehend. It was like the sun abruptly lost all fuel, like all the lightbulbs suddenly went out. It was pitch black.

"What the-!?" Jaune said as the others reacted similarly, aside from Nora, who was cackling loudly. "Everyone get close to me!" They did as told, all huddling together... maybe a little too close. "Ah! Whose hand is that?... Yang, is that you?"

"Whoops," she teased. "That was an accident."

"But your hand's still on my ass…"

"And it's still an accident."

The light came back all at once like the sun reignited, and they were again subjected to that familiar sight of being suspended far above a field of grass.

And they were falling once more.

Though, the landing this time was much more unpleasant as they were all tangled together. Yang groaned, unsuccessfully trying to pull herself from the pile.

"Okay, now someone's hand is touching my ass."

"Yeah, how do you like it?" Jaune said, rolling out.

"I mean, well, it's kinda nice…"

"Umm," Ruby began to mutter from somewhere underneath her. "I think that's my hand…"

Yang let out a wail of disgust, flailing to break free. The rest of them stood as well, brushing off all the grass.

"Ahh, what the heck!?" Nora cried, looking herself over. "Where'd all my cool armor go!?" It was actually a rather curious thing to see. Her incredibly detailed and elaborate looking armor from before had all vanished, replaced with a simple, modest dress that looked to be from much more old-fashioned times. Was that what she was wearing when she first entered this place? "And where's my bag!?"

"Hey!" Jaune said angrily, catching Nora's attention. "Do you want to tell us what's going on here? Why'd you make me read the words off that paper? Why do we keep falling into this field? Why does my hair look so stupid? And who the hell is Penny!?"

"I am Penny," the cheerful, disembodied voice said, and they all looked around, even Nora who seemed just as confused. "I am the Android that your immersive RPG simulation experience is taking place in, and I am here to guide you along the way."

"RPG? As in… a role-playing game?" Jaune muttered. That would explain his newfound strength.

"Role-play..." Yang mumbled in thought. "Oh, like, a master and slave kinda thing?"

A set of cat ears perked up.

"Master and slave? Blake is intrigued."

"No, no, no," Jaune said, shaking his head vigorously. "It's like a video game."

Ruby gasped excitedly.

"Oh, a video game? I've heard of those! Me and Yang've always wanted to try one!"

"Ehh, this isn't a normal kind of video game, Ruby." He turned his focus up to Penny, wherever she was. He didn't really know where to look when he talked to her. "Penny, how do we get out of here?"

"All you need to do is give the command to exit the game."

"Oh... Okay... Penny, run command- exit game."

There was a beat of silence.

"I'm sorry," Penny said. "There seems to be some software instability. Did you check to make sure the system is plugged in?"

Jaune facepalmed. "Penny, you are the system..."

Another beat of silence.

"So I am! In that case, I am attempting to contact technical support..."

Blake rested a hand on Jaune's arm.

"Those that made the Androids stopped long ago. There will be no support."

"Hmm," Penny continued. "There was an error in processing the request. Would you like to make a report?"

"Yeah," Yang said into the sky. "You can report to your dumbass creator that they can suck my-"

"No, thank you, Penny," Jaune cut in. "Just... tell us how else we can get out of here, please."

"Well, someone from outside the game could eject you out, but my physical body is in no condition to do so, as none of my limbs are currently operable. Other than that, the only other way to exit is to complete the game by defeating the final boss, but you must be careful! If all of you fall in battle, you will be stuck here indefinitely!… I will now open the readme file that contains more information about this… … … My apologies, there seems to be much data corruption in the readme file…"

Jaune sighed. He couldn't say that was unexpected. If Penny was as old as the evidence was suggesting, of course there would be data corruption. Electronic information just simply didn't survive that long.

"Nora," Jaune said. "How long have you been in this place?"

She crooked her mouth and scratched her head in contemplation.

"I don't know… Probably at least a few hours."

"What…? Are you sure it's not like… a hundred years?"

"Hmm, maybe!" she answered with an oblivious smile. "I don't really remember."

"Well, do you remember anything?"

"Sometimes."

Jaune merely stared with a dumbfounded look as Weiss thought to try her hand.

"Nora, you said you were level ninety-seven before," she said, trying to maintain her patience. "You must be able to tell us something about this place…"

"Well, I remember the final boss is a parasite that infects you and takes over your-"

"Warning!" Penny announced loudly. "A threat is approaching! Prepare yourselves for battle!"

"What!?" Jaune looked at his team. Sure, Weiss and Blake had their usual weapons, and Yang was a weapon, but what about the rest of them?

The impending threat was upon them before they even realized it, slamming down from the skies with a thundering roar and kicking up a blinding cloud of dust. Its landing coincided with the startup of loud, epic orchestral music playing from everywhere like Penny's voice, seemingly for the sole purpose of making the encounter more dramatic.

Once the dust was clear they got a good luck at the enormous, three-headed beastly hound with chains around its necks, cracks of glowing red goo seeping from its hardened, black skin, and molten spit drooling from its three mouths. It let out a terrible bellow again.

"You don't think he just wants tummy rubs, right?" Ruby yelled over the music.

"Nora! What do we do!?" Jaune called.

"Reach behind you and think of a weapon!" she told him as she did exactly that, putting her hand behind her back as if she was actually grabbing for something. Before Jaune's very eyes, a mace began to materialize at the handle in her grip. Though, it wasn't the same expertly crafted hammer from before; this one looked rather cheap comparatively.

Nora took off for the monster.

"Hammer Blow!" she screamed, pummeling it with a series of slow strikes.

The rest of them that were without weapons did as instructed.

Jaune pulled out a shield and ridiculously large sword that he was somehow able to wield with one hand, Ruby took hold of what looked like an old flintlock pistol, Miss Ren had a wooden bo staff, and Yang just had a pair of beaten up brass knuckles.

Yang let out an affronted puff.

"Okay, seriously, what the fuck!"

"Hey, Juan!" Nora called out while riding precariously on top of the chains of the thrashing Cerberus like a bull. "Hold your palm out facing upwards in front of you!"

"It's Jaune!" he corrected as he did so, somehow projecting an interactive holographic screen above his hand. "And thanks!"

The display showed him a Mission Objective, Battle Log, Inventory, and a plethora of information about him and his entire group. He could see their amounts of Current HP, Max HP, Energy, and even their class names.

Jaune – Guardian

Nora – Warrior

Ruby – Gunslinger

Weiss – Battle Mage

Blake – Black Mage

Yang – Berserker

Lie – Pacifist

Jaune raised a brow at that last one before he noticed a small, red icon next to Yang's name. He poked it, which brought up text that read, 'Injury – All stats reduced by 50%', which must've referred to her missing tail, but there was another purple icon next to Weiss's name. 'Withdrawals – Max HP and Energy reduced by 10%'. What in the world was that about?

He was barely able to glimpse the next column, titled Current Mood, before he was sent flying with a fortuitous side-swipe of the beast's barbed tail, landing next to Miss Ren.

"I'm sorry," she said with a frown as Jaune allowed her to help him up. "I wish I could be of more use than morale since you all being here is essentially my fault, but my bo staff seems to be only for aesthetic purposes, as I am no fighter."

"Pah!" Nora laughed while taking a swing and miss at the beast. "We don't need morale! Just look at the menu for your basic abilities! This first boss is as easy as ca-" She took a heavy hit from the giant dog, launching her up into a tree.

Jaune pulled up the status menu. He was down a small bit of health while Nora was missing about half from just that one hit. He looked to his friends rushing into the fight, even Yang who was basically doing the awkward Wyrm-equivalent of limping.

It was time to be a guardian, he supposed.

He peeked at his so-called abilities, then charged forwards.

Nora had taken a brutal wallop, but Jaune wasn't about to let her go down in the first fight.

Running passed the boss while deflecting some fire breath with his shield (which he was completely impressed that he could do), he baseball-slid to gracefully catch the Valkyrie when she fell from the tree branch.

"You alright?" he asked as he laid her down.

"Yeah," she said sheepishly with a grimace. "I guess I forgot what it's like to be level one again."

"Nora, I saw I had an ability called Mend Wound, how do I use it?"

"Oh, that's easy! You just gotta say something really dramatic and think of the ability, but be careful. Any healing spells really make the bad guys mad at you!"

Jaune turned to his team.

"Ruby!" he called, just barely overpowering the music and catching her focus. "Cover me while I heal Nora!"

Ruby gave a determined nod and fired again, flinching at her own shot before covering her ears.

"Geez! Why's it so loud? Is there a volume knob on this thing?"

Jaune focused back on Nora.

"I've got you," he said, trying to make it sound dramatic enough. It was, and he was beginning to project into her a fascinating green light from his hands. He looked at his status. His Energy was going down, but her Health was going up.

As he healed her, her ringed eyes watched him with an odd interest, scanning his body. Her tail curiously slid its way up his chest, searching, looking for… something?

"Uhh… Nora…?"

"You don't have any chest nuggets," she concluded, and Jaune's nose crinkled in confusion.

"Any… what?"

"Look out!" Ruby shouted.

Jaune instinctively grabbed Nora and leapt away, swiftly dodging a stomp with his new video game powers. She was at about eighty percent Health, which had to be good enough for now.

He placed her on her feet.

"Nora, you've fought this thing before, right? What's its weakness?"

"Uhh, fire, I think?"

Jaune nodded and stormed towards the boss, and the music seemed to increase in intensity.

"Weiss, Blake! Do you two have any fire spells?" He took the blow of a strike with his shield aimed for Weiss.

"I can imbue my weapon with fire magic," she said.

"Blake has fire spells, yes!"

"Use them!"

Blake began spinning her scythe around as it glowed red with embers, and Weiss muttered the words necessary under her breath as her weapon burned as well.

Jaune took a few jabs at one of the boss's heads to attract their attention. It worked, and Weiss, using her RPG-endowed agility, leapt high into the air and came down with a lunging, fiery stab while Blake unleashed a hellacious fireball from the side, blasting the boss with heavy impact.

Jaune's face dropped when the fire attacks had little effect. Instead, the magic seemed to be sucked into the beast's body through the cracks in its skin, and sent out a shockwave, blasting Weiss away. Jaune looked to Nora, who had her hand to her chin in contemplation before the realization hit her.

"Oh, you know what?" she called. "I think fire was actually its strength!"

Jaune facepalmed. He was pretty sure they'd just healed the boss. Though, he supposed it was his fault for blindly trusting Nora's memory.

The beast roared and stomped its feet with invigoration. Being the one standing in front of it, it lunged at Jaune in a solo stampede, but he rolled out of the way. It didn't stop there though, circling back around for its attackers, only for Blake to nimbly dodge as well, but Weiss was too preoccupied going through her list of other abilities.

"Weiss, look out!"

It tackled her, pouncing and mauling her with its claws.

"G-Get it- Get it off!"

Jaune ran full speed, ramming it with his shield, but it hardly budged. Mere slashes of his sword and gunshots from Ruby did nothing to stop it. Desperate, he quickly skimmed through the menu again, finding an attack that he was familiar with from his days of playing online RPGs.

"Come on! Fight me, you asshole!" he yelled, hitting his shield as he tried to Taunt the boss, and an aura of red light flowed outwards from him.

Finally, it turned up its leer at him and got off of Weiss, leaving her at a quarter of Health.

Jaune planted his feet firmly and… Well, he hadn't really thought this far.

"Eat lead, sucker!" Ruby yelled dramatically, firing some kind of purple, magical bullet, and she let out a giggle, clearly amused with herself. The shot seemed to home in, making a direct hit into the boss's leg and shrouding the beast briefly in that same purple aura. "I think I lowered its agility!"

Yang hobbled up next, grinning devilishly at the boss.

"Hey, nice fire, idiot! You hit like a vegetarian!" she shouted, and it was showered in another colored aura, reducing its defense.

"Oh, oh! Let me try!" Ruby hopped up close. "Hey! Your, uhh... Your feet look like sausage patties!" But nothing happened. Jaune checked the Battle Log to see that her attempt had been resisted.

Ruby crossed her arms with a groan while Yang nudged her.

"We'll work on your insults later."

Blake had been charging up another attack of an arcane element, and she released a flurry of small magical missiles barraging the boss while Weiss shot a large bolt of ice, encasing it halfway frozen. It cried out in pain.

Checking the Battle Log again, he noticed a key piece of info.

"Weiss, your ice is super effective! Hit it again!" She did so, hurrying to its other side and repeating the attack, and it was frozen completely solid. "Nora, with me! Smash!"

"You got it!"

They both took a running start from opposite sides of the boss, getting up to full speed before jumping and throwing all their strength into one strike aimed at the heads. Jaune blasted through one with his shield as Nora crashed through another on the other side with her mace, and they both sandwiched the middle head, shattering it into pieces before they slammed into each other and fell together in an exhausted heap.

The boss was finally dead, offering them some well-deserved respite as the music fell off, replaced with a short, victorious fanfare tune.

Looking up at the frozen carcass, Jaune didn't bother holding back a tired laugh… It had actually been kind of exhilarating in a stupid, ridiculous way if he just looked passed the fact that their lives were all endangered.

"Yeah, see?" Nora breathed out heavily. "... Easy peasy."

Jaune sat up and blew one of her wing's feathers out of his mouth.

"Lemon squeezy?"

Nora donned a confused frown.

"What?"

"… Never mind."

Jaune stood and helped Nora up. Everyone seemed to be doing pretty well, except for a weary Weiss, who was sitting in the grass. He jogged over.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked, kneeling beside her.

"I'm fine," she said feebly, turning away to hide her bloodied face.

"Don't worry, I may not have much left in me, but I can help." He held out his hands to heal her.

"I said I'm fine," she repeated, swatting him away as she staggered to her feet, holding her side. "I just want to be back at the house as soon as possible."

"It'll probably be a while before that happens," Nora offered, and Weiss turned, gritting her teeth.

"Why?"

Nora shrugged.

"Well, I mean, I was here for a long time by myself, but now that you're all here, we could probably be done in like a week!"

Weiss's eyes widened.

"No," she said quietly as she approached the much taller Nora and pointed a finger up at her. "No, no, no, I do not have a week to be wasting in here! We need to get out now!" After stomping a foot on the ground, she stormed off in some arbitrary direction.

"But what about the loot?" Nora yelled out.

"Wait, what loot?" Jaune said.

"This loot!" She pulled Jaune's sword out of its sheath and ran over to the frozen boss to push it over on its side. She stabbed into the corpse's stomach, using the blade to cut open a long gash.

"Ah, Jesus, Nora! The hell are you doing?"

She then proceeded to begin casually pulling out random organs, entrails, anything she deemed in her way, and tossing them away while humming the battle theme that had just been playing during their fight.

"That's..." Yang muttered in stunned breath. "That's pretty fuckin' metal."

Nora's eyes lit up.

"Ooo!" she cooed, reaching in further. "Guess it's my lucky day!" She pulled out a pair of plated, blood-stricken gloves, holding them up for all to see. "Warrior gauntlets!" She wasted no time slipping them on, grinning ecstatically even though they made a disturbingly slick sound when they did. Hopping right back into her search, she pulled out a basic, bloodied leather hat and approached Ruby. "This one's for you!" she said, happily slapping it over her head.

Ruby tensed up, and Jaune watched a slow-falling droplet of blood trail down her cheek.

"Uhh... thanks..."

"You earned it, little Rubbie!" she said, smacking Ruby on the shell before turning to Jaune. "It might be a good idea to set up camp to rest and stuff."

Jaune raised a brow at the sun high up directly above them.

"Camp...? Right now?"

"Yep!" she affirmed, reaching behind her to pull out a pile of folded up tents from nowhere. "The sun will go down as soon as we get these babies set up!" She dumped them into Ruby's arms and looked at Jaune. "I'll get a fire going, but you should probably go kiss the grumpy Elf's booboos." She motioned towards Weiss. "We're hitting the town tomorrow."

She was right. Weiss's Health was still in bad shape, and her Current Mood read: Troubled. Jaune only had a little Energy left, so it looked like some good old fashioned first aid would have to do the trick. Luckily, there was a convenient first aid kit in their inventory.

After basically dragging Weiss to sit down on an unused log by the fire with him (but not so close to it that it'd be uncomfortable for her), the sun did indeed start to artificially set, and that same familiar, omnipresent voice reached his ears.

"Party Leader Jaune?" Penny asked.

"Uhh… yes?" Jaune said awkwardly while Weiss begrudgingly allowed him to wipe the blue blood from her arms with a cloth. He wondered why Penny was considering him the leader.

"Please allow me to give you a tutorial on how the night phase works."

"Night... phase?"

"Yes. In order for the sun to rise in the morning, the party leader will have to have had a meaningful conversation with each of their companions."

Jaune scrunched his nose at the vague instruction.

"What does that even mean?"

"It means your relationship with a given party member will need to have changed in some capacity, either increasing or decreasing in intensity."

Jaune blinked and swallowed thickly.

Why'd she have to use the word, 'intensity'? That made it sound a little…

"Umm, okay… But why me?"

"Because you are the leader!"

"... Fine... Anything else?"

"The rest of the tutorial is corrupted!" she said cheerfully. "That will be all for now!"

"Alright… Thanks, Penny."

"You are most welcome, Party Leader Jaune! Have a good night's rest, and I wish you sweet Human dreams!"

Jaune let out a small puff of a laugh.

"… You too, Penny."

He finished with Weiss's arms and brought another log over to be able to sit facing her. With one hand, he gently raised her downcast chin and began wiping away the blood on her blue lips and face with the other as she kept her glowing eyes from meeting his.

It was impossible to miss the way her body was trembling no matter how hard she tried to hide it.

"So," he started softly. "Wanna tell me what's botheringyou?"

"Nothing," she said, instantly scowling up at some tree. "I told you I'm fine."

"Not according to this thing." He pulled up the menu in between them and pointed out her Current Mood before putting it away. "Besides... it's written all over you."

"If you're going to keep pestering me, then I'll go clean myself up in silence."

"Come on, Weiss. You heard Penny. We've gotta become closer... Or I've at least gotta annoy you enough to make you dislike me more."

"Well, you're on your way to completing one of those…"

Jaune sighed.

He continued working in a thoughtful quiet, cleaning a gash above her eye, pulling out clumps of dirt stuck in her frozen locks of hair, and listening to the crackle of the fire. He grabbed a thin bandage from the kit and began to wrap it around a laceration at the top of one of her tall, Elven ears.

"I've just…" Weiss started to say quietly to Jaune's surprise. "It's just that there's been something on my mind since we got here… and it has me a little on edge."

"Yeah… You have seemed a little more irritable than usual today."

Weiss threw an annoyed slap at Jaune's chest as she whined, "No I haven't!" He merely raised a knowing brow at her, and she huffed. "Well… You're not supposed to agree."

He'd probably have laughed if he wasn't busy being so damn concerned about her. He finished bandaging her ear, and her breath caught as he took her hand in hers. She tried to steady her shakiness, but it was no use.

"You may get annoyed easily," Jaune said. "But I don't think you're one to get shaken up like this." That was apparently the wrong thing to say, as she only seemed to grow more reserved, tilting her body ever so slightly away. "… Does the word 'withdrawals' mean anything to you?"

Weiss cringed.

"… No…"

"You're lying."

"And you're annoying!" she shot while taking her hand back.

Jaune wore a sad frown, not spurred on by her words, but by her distance. Weiss's Health may have gone up to about three quarters and would probably increase further with sleep, but her Max Health and Energy was now reduced by fifteen percent, lower now than it had been earlier that day. Her condition was only getting worse.

"Weiss," he said softly, hazarding a chance at moving to sit at her side, shoulder to shoulder. She stared down at the grass. "I know that you didn't ask for this… both being stuck in this place with us, and stuck with me as wife and husband… But, regardless of all that, I am here for you… You're my friend, and I care about you… You can talk to me."

She finally looked to him, her glowing, blue eyes searching his own as if trying to uncover any untruth.

Jaune had thought it before, and he still did. Weiss really did look like a goddess in a mortal's form with the way she radiated an otherworldly beauty.

Striving to shun any possible doubt, Jaune gave a small smile as his palm came around to rest on her opposite shoulder, and she tensed under the gentle touch, her expression breaking.

"What- What is happening? What are you doing to me?"

Jaune frowned.

"I'm... hugging you?"

"You're what-ing me?"

"Weiss, have you never been hugged before?"

She was like stone in his embrace, and Jaune began to feel a little awkward himself.

"Should I feel violated?" she asked. "Because I'm definitely feeling pretty violated."

A breathy laugh escaped Jaune, which only earned a pointed look.

"It's just a sign of affection," he said. At that, her shoulders relaxed a little, though her face did pink a fraction.

"Oh... like... a Human thing?" she asked quietly.

"Well, I thought this was an everybody thing... Are you going to hug me back?"

Her face scrunched in suspicion.

"Am I supposed to? That sounds lewd. Our skin is already touching enough."

Maybe hugging was just a little too much for Weiss. Jaune let go, and her tension disappeared. She took a deep breath and spoke slowly, seemingly choosing each word carefully.

"Jaune, I appreciate the sentiments… Really, I do. But my problems are my own, and I will overcome them myself… So do not worry your annoying, little face about it," she said, reaching up to give Jaune's cheek a couple pats. Though, her cold hand lingered for a warm moment before she stood. "… Thank you."

A quick chime sound effect played from the sky, and Penny made her presence known again.

"You have completed an objective, Party Leader Jaune," she said.

Jaune pulled up the menu, seeing a couple green arrows next to Weiss's name pointing upwards in a little animation. He guessed that meant he was successful in strengthening their relationship.

He looked at Weiss, but she was already walking away, leaving Jaune feeling restless. This wouldn't be the end of this conversation, he figured, but she was done talking for now. They may have successfully become closer, but she was still Troubled.

"Girl problems, huh?" Jaune hadn't even noticed Nora sitting on the other side of the fire now, roasting several salamander-like animals over it on a stick. "Here." With her tail, she picked up a twig with more of the creatures skewered on it, offering it to Jaune. "Wanna help make dinner?"

Where did she even find those?

"Uhh, sure," he said, taking it and eyeing them over. He supposed cooking simulated food might've been the same as real food, but he copied Nora's borderline primitive style of just holding them over the fire anyway.

A simulated world… Simulated food... Such a fascinating concept. This kind of thing could be the end of world hunger, even overpopulation, but instead it was being used for an RPG video game... Absolutely mind boggling.

Such incredible technology, and yet, Ruby and Yang had never even heard of cell phones before. Though, apparently, they had quite literally been raised in a forest, so maybe it wasn't that much of a stretch.

"I've never seen one like you before," Nora said, breaking the comfortable quiet and looking Jaune over. "Your voice is deeper, and you don't have any chest nuggets."

Again with the chest nuggets…

"You keep mentioning that, but I don't know what you mean." he said.

"Oh, these things," she proceeded to lean forward, pulling down the front of her dress, and Jaune looked away, frantically motioning for her to stop.

"Okay- okay! Yes! Thank you! Got it! I understand, Nora!"

Nora slowly sat back down with her head tilted.

"Why is your face getting red? Are you embarrassed that you don't have any chest nuggets? Cause it's nothing to be upset about. The Elf doesn't have them either."

"Go to Hell, you dumb Valkyrie!" Jaune heard Weiss yell from inside her tent that she'd already set up. He'd forgotten how acute a Monster's hearing was, especially the ones with bigger or extra ears.

"No," Jaune said. "I don't have any… 'chest nuggets'. I'm a Human male." He wasn't really sure how foreign of a concept that was to someone like Nora. Who knew how long she'd been isolated from any kind of social contact? "Also," he continued, lowering his voice. "Weiss does have them… They're just under her armor and a little on the smaller side, but… they're absolutely fine the way they are." He cautiously looked back to Weiss's tent, half expecting some kind of verbal lashing, but he took a peek at her Current Mood just to be sure. He watched it in real time as it ticked over from Troubled to Embarrassed.

Damn it… She definitely heard…

"So, a Human, huh?" Nora muttered to herself, ringed eyes absently wandering as she thought. "Those sound familiar."

"Nora?" Jaune said, pulling her from her musings. "Tell me it's none of my business, but how did you get here?"

She shrugged.

"I don't remember."

"Okay… How old are you?"

"Couldn't tell ya."

"Did anyone come with you?"

"No idea."

Jaune sighed.

"Why did you need someone else to restart the game for you?"

Nora's face lit up.

"Oh, oh! I actually know that one! It was because I couldn't!"

"Wait, really? Why?"

"… I don't remember."

Jaune groaned and rolled his eyes.

"But, umm," Nora mumbled, her tail curling around her leg nervously while she chewed on her lip. "I'm really glad you guys are here… It did get kind of lonely sometimes."

Her sudden, softer side caught Jaune off guard, and he even found himself matching her blush.

"Oh… Uhh, yeah… I'm glad we're able to help."

She smiled bashfully.

The chime played again, and Jaune checked Nora's status to find those same green, upward arrows indicating that they'd grown closer.

That had been relatively easy.

Looking at the status page, it was almost impossible to miss Blake's mood towards the bottom- Jealous.

Jaune snuck a glance behind him, glimpsing a pair of cat ears ducking back into a tent. Smirking fondly, he turned to Nora.

"Excuse me for a bit," he said, handing the stick of meat to her. She took it with her tail and gave a salute.

"No problem, Joanne!"

He was about to correct her again, but if she couldn't remember her own name, that was probably a lost cause. He started making his way over to Blake's tent.

The sun had gone down completely by now as well as the temperature. The crickets were singing, the frogs were croaking, and the occasional hoot of an owl could be heard. Though, he had a suspicion all those sounds were artificial, as he didn't really see much of any kind of wildlife in their open plain. Then again, since this was a simulation, they would probably be considered artificial anyways… or something…

He shook his head. That was headache material… also unimportant at the moment.

He stopped outside the closed entrance of Blake's tent.

"Hey, Blake? Can I come in?"

He heard some rustling around inside before she answered.

"Jaune may always enter Blake's space."

"... Uhh… Okay," he ducked his head to enter and plop down. There wasn't a whole lot of room in the tent, but, apparently, each one came with a couple pillows and blankets.

Blake was sitting idly with legs tucked under herself, hands in her lap and watching him as her tail swayed excitedly.

"Blake is happy Jaune thought to visit her."

Jaune was already nervous.

"Oh… Yeah, you know me… Always making time for everyone," he said, intentionally deflecting. Blake didn't notice. Instead, she blushed and smiled as if it were somehow a compliment. "Sooo…" he continued awkwardly, eyes trying to find something of interest in the tent as he cleared his throat. "... Bet you didn't think this was how our night would-"

"Would Jaune like to pet Blake again?" she blurted out like she'd been holding the question in all day.

"Wait, what-"

She crawled to him, forcing herself halfway onto his lap and making herself comfortable enough to lie down looking up at him sweetly. Sometimes she was more like a dog than a cat…

She gently nudged his idle arm with her forehead.

Literally afraid of what would happen should he say no, his hand found its way to the top of her head again to work its magic, albeit more slowly than before. He didn't want a repeat of last time. Blake's eyelids fluttered closed, dousing the glow from her eyes behind her blindfold, and she breathed a content sigh as she nuzzled a little more into him.

They stayed like that for a short while. The dark gas that naturally emanated from her body tickled Jaune's skin. He finally started to relax a little, listening to the low rumbling of her purring and Yang and Nora's indistinct chatter by the fire.

Though, his goal still hadn't been completed, and it wasn't going to be if Blake ended up falling asleep on him. He needed to spur some kind of meaningful conversation.

"Hey, Blake," he said, bringing her back from the brink of sleep with a tired, inquisitive hum. "I don't think I properly thanked you for saving our lives last night."

Her warm, golden eyes peeked open, and she smiled.

"Blake would never let anything happen to Jaune."

"I'm not the only one you saved though," he informed her. "Sure, I was probably the one in the most immediate danger at the moment, but you saved all of us. So… thank you."

She snuggled even closer, wrapping arms around his midsection and burying her face in his shirt to hide her ever-reddening cheeks.

"If it pleases Jaune, Blake will protect his friends as well… Excluding the winged one…"

Jaune frowned.

"You mean Nora?"

Blake's ears flattened backwards, and her tail flicked with agitation at even just the mention of the name.

"Blake will not fight for the Valkyrie."

"Why?"

Blake sighed.

"Blake is too young to have experienced it herself, but there was once a grueling war between the unholy Reapers and the angelic Valkyries. The Reapers were victorious," she explained as she sat up to face him. The gas from her body, or 'essence of death' as she called it before, started to flow to her back, congregating and solidifying into the form of a pair of wings black as night, perfectly contrasting Nora's white wings, albeit quite a bit smaller. She extended her wings and gave them a flap as if stretching them for the first time in a while. "They hated each other," she continued. "A surviving Valkyrie could only feel contempt for Blake… Also, Blake does not like other things with wings."

"Blake," Jaune said with a small laugh. "I don't think you have anything to worry about. She doesn't remember her own name or even the fact that she is a Valkyrie, let alone some bad blood with your ancestors. I'm sure your Reaper side means no more to her than your Neko side."

Blake mulled over his words for a contemplative moment, and her ears deflated again, this time with embarrassment.

"... Jaune is right," she said quietly as she let herself lie back down, her wings disappearing again. "Jaune is always right."

His brows creased, and his fingers unconsciously returned to her ears.

"That's not true..."

"Jaune is very nice and sweet to Blake, even when she is undeserving. He has shown great mercy to Blake for her mistakes when others would have not."

Something about that statement troubled Jaune. He remembered Blake's reaction for having failed to stop Coco earlier that day. Scared, in distress, nearly brought to tears. Remarkably emotional…

Possibly learned fears from failures elsewhere.

"It sounds like things were pretty rough back home… Was that why we found you hiding in that old building?"

"... Blake does not want to talk about home," she said, rolling over on her other side to face away from him. Jaune placed a sympathetic hand on her arm, and she met his with her own. "Blake is home."

Jaune felt his cheeks get a little warm. For as much as Blake usually terrified him, he found himself equally adoring of her sometimes.

She was troubled. She said she'd being hiding in that restaurant, but what from? What was she hiding? A painful past shrouded by insecurities? Trauma from abuse? If so, then who by?

He felt a little guilty. He hadn't even thought it possible that this girl who thought so casually of murder would be running from something else, that she could even be afraid of something else.

At first, he had thought her so much different than the others, but was she really?

The chime played again, and Jaune checked the status menu. Three down, three to go, though he didn't know how he felt about treating his relationships with everyone like checklists he needed to work on. It felt unnatural.

It wasn't long before Blake's purring fell off, falling asleep in his lap under his caresses. Yet, he didn't move right away. He stayed a little longer, watching her sleep before carefully moving her onto her pillow. Placing a blanket over her, he climbed out of the tent, being met by the air that was rapidly cooling.

He looked around. Yang was lying down by the fire with a large blanket and pillow, waiting for Nora to finish cooking, which, by the surprisingly pleasing smell of it, was almost done. Miss Ren was standing over by her tent, looking over the status menu, and Ruby was sitting on a log off into the dark a little ways from camp.

A small pit settled uncomfortably in his stomach for some reason.

After a moment of deliberation, he approached the fire. Giving a nod to Nora, he sat down where it was warm next to Yang, who smiled sleepily up at him.

"You finally done petting the pussy?" she asked as she stretched. "I watched your mood while you were in there. A nice, healthy mix of arousal and fear. Sounds like a good time."

"Yang," Jaune drawled, rolling his eyes.

"No, I get it," Yang whispered with a wink. "The murder kitty's kinda hot... If she wasn't so god damn crazy, I might be a little smitten for the kitten myself."

"She's not crazy, Yang. Just misunderstood."

Yang quirked a skeptical brow.

"Did you even see what her mood was while you were in there?"

Jaune's frown dissolved into a blank stare.

"... I don't want to know," he muttered while Yang snickered to herself. "Yeah, well, what does your mood say right now?" He checked the menu that indicated her Current Mood as 'playful'.

"Come on, Jaune," she teased, seeing her own mood herself. "Play with me..."

Jaune couldn't suppress a small laugh as Yang tugged at his hand. "Quit it, we need to figure out a way to become closer," he said, immediately cringing at his choice of words.

"Hmm, I've got something in mind…"

Nora abruptly stood, looking at them with an odd expression. "You guys are weird," she announced. "Food's done if y'all want some." With that, she grabbed her plate and made her way to her tent, moving her body in an awkward, yet practiced way to be able to enter without bringing it down with her wings.

There was probably something to be said about being called weird by Nora of all people, though Jaune wasn't sure what.

He got up to make two plates of food, giving one to Yang when he sat back down, earning himself a genuine smile.

"I'm gonna miss you, Jaune," Yang said warmly.

"Jeez, don't say that like you're planning to kill me in my sleep."

"Pfft," she laughed. "Yeah right, if I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't have to wait until you're sleeping."

Jaune took a bite of the somehow-tasty, roasted salamander.

"You sure about that? With these new video game powers, I'm feeling like I can take on the world right now, and you're missing an appendage."

"Hmm, point," she said, finally chomping down. "What I meant was… I'm gonna miss you when you finally go back home, like, to America."

Jaune's smile faded as his thoughts wandered back home.

"… Yeah… Honestly, I don't know what's gonna happen when I get back."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, how would I even tell people where I've been? Not that they'd believe me, but I can't imagine Humans knowing about your kind would be good for Monster Girl Island. Also, Weiss is my official wife now I guess, which I don't know how much ground that could ever hold in the states, but it might be a problem when the time comes." His cautious gaze drifted to Blake's tent. "And I have a sneaking suspicion that someone's going to follow me no matter where I am in the world..." Yang didn't respond much to his words, seemingly stuck in her own head with a frown. "... You could come with me."

That woke her up.

"What…?"

"Yeah, you and Ruby... Really, all of you could."

She smirked at him, but lightly shook her head.

"Jaune, you know that couldn't happen. Humanity would flip their collective shits if they knew we existed."

"Would they?" Maybe it was a pipe dream. Maybe it was too easy to just say it could happen, to say to give it a try, to say that Jaune himself adjusted fairly quickly to this strange, new land so why couldn't the rest of the world? But it saddened him dearly to think he'd be parting ways with all of these people sometime in the near future, unlikely to ever hear from them again. "I know it's only been a few days," he said, his food temporarily forgotten. "But I feel really close to you guys."

Yang swallowed her last bite, somehow already finished and having apparently eaten the bones. She laid back down.

"Yeah, I know what you mean… I guess almost dying together a few times might do that to you," she said, bumping him softly with what was left of her tail. "I'll be sad to see you go though… I love you, Jaune." Jaune's surprised gaze fell on her. Those words left her lips so casually, as if she'd said them a hundred times before, and Yang blinked, the realization hitting her as her words caught in her throat. "I-I-I mean… I don't love you-love you! It's just that, I mean- You know I care about you and stuff of course, but, like, we all do! You know? It's like that!"

Jaune's lips stretched smugly from corner to corner, which served to redden her face even more. The chime played once more in the air.

Taking that as her cue, Yang quickly flipped over to face the fire, pulling the blanket up high and settling still like stone.

"'Kay, well goodnight!"

Jaune brushed her shoulder as he stood, a small offering of affection in return.

"Love you too, Yang… Goodnight."

He finished up the last of his food, then fixed up a few more plates. After dropping some off at the opening of Weiss's and Blake's tents, he assessed his remaining options. Miss Ren was still in the same spot she'd been, fighting against a yawn and presumably waiting to get their talk over with. Ruby also hadn't moved from her general area away from the camp, but was now inside of her shell.

Jaune approached Miss Ren, but she frowned when he handed over the food.

"Why are you here?" she asked, though more inquisitive than affronted. Jaune blinked, making a small sound of confusion before Miss Ren continued. "Why aren't you speaking with the Terrapin first?"

"I, uhh-" He snuck a look at Ruby's idle shell. "I was... just going to talk to her afterwards."

"You are avoiding her."

"Wh-What? No, no, I-" Even as he said that, he was unable to continue. Was he avoiding her? Stalling? Now that he thought about it, they hadn't really spoken much since their cooking session earlier that morning.

"She is no doubt important to you," Miss Ren told him and nodded towards Ruby. "Talk to her first."

Jaune sighed.

She was right. Probably. That pit in Jaune's stomach was still there, and he knew why now. But, with determination to make things right and more than a little embarrassment, he went to grab another plate of food and marched over to Ruby.

She must have heard him coming because her silver eyes peeked out of her shell, widening briefly before disappearing again.

"Hey, Ruby," he said, crossing his arms for warmth as he sat down next to her.

"… Hey, Jaune."

Her voice was small, and the way it shook was already making him a little nervous. Jaune cleared his throat.

Where had their previous conversation ended? He was in the middle of apologizing, he remembered. He supposed he could pick up where he left off.

His lips parted, but struggled for words as the growing silence threatened to consume his nerves. Pulling the tight collar of his shirt slightly off his neck, his eyes fell to the red and black shell, which seemed to leer up at him with its judgmental stare.

But something caught his focus.

Ruby's shell was trembling a little, just enough to be noticed. But… why? Jaune laid a hand on the smooth back of the carapace.

It was so cold.

Well, of course it was cold. Ruby was coldblooded, so her body had little ways of regulating its temperature. She must've been freezing in there. Even Jaune himself was shivering already from having only been sitting there for just a moment. So why was Ruby not by the fire?

"Ruby, can I see your hand?" he asked, holding his own out in front of the shell's hole.

"Wh-What? Why?"

"Trust me," he said, putting a smile in his voice.

It took a small moment, but her shaky hand did come out, and Jaune took it in his own.

"Ruby! You're freezing cold..."

His expression broke, and he found the swift realization to sting him in the heart in a way that he couldn't have imagined.

Ruby had been avoiding him… They had been avoiding each other.

"No, no! I'm- It's-... I'm fine!"

Jaune may not have known what words to say, but he'd be damned if he was gonna let her freeze out here because of him.

With a breath of resolve, he lifted the entire shell with Ruby inside of it, eliciting a surprised squeak, as well as another when he put her down next to the fire. Taking a pillow and blanket from his own unused tent, he sat down in front of the crackling blaze, putting her in his lap and placing the blanket over the shell without covering the hole. He embraced her, offering as much of his own warmth as possible.

Yang was somehow already passed out, her snoring able to be heard even from the other side of the fire. Eventually, Ruby's trembling stopped, and Jaune smiled to himself.

He didn't have any words for her right now, but maybe he didn't need them. Maybe just being here was enough…

He got his answer in the form of that familiar chime from the sky, which was followed shortly by another. He checked their statuses, and he was surprised to find those approving, green arrows next to both Ruby's and Miss Ren's names.

Jaune's eyes found Miss Ren's, and she gave him an approving nod before heading inside her tent.

Mission accomplished, he supposed.

He may not have understood exactly what was going through Ruby's head, but Jaune was going to prove to her, as well as the rest of them, that he would fulfill his role as their Guardian. He would protect them. He was going to do his job. He was going to do his best to get them home.

Home…

Jaune pulled out his phone and began looking through old pictures, even coming across the ones that emerald had taken. With pressed lips, he deleted them. Eventually, he once again spotted new ones, these most recent photos being from Ruby. It looked like she had a bit of fun learning how to be a selfie model for the camera in the kitchen.

A little too much fun, if he were to judge by the very last picture she took. She had the front of her shirt pulled down a little, showing off a tiny bit of cleavage while wearing a goofy grin. This must've been the 'naughty picture' she referred to earlier. It wasn't much, but it still managed to fill his cheeks with heat.

With a hand absently grazing the shell, he put the pillow on top and laid his head down. Her Current Mood was content.

"G'night, Ruby."

"Goodnight, Jaune."

[End of Part 1]

I feel like it needs to be said- Sorry to any Coco fans out there. I really didn't know how to write her, so I kind of just made her angry, exaggerated comic relief.

I'm also interested in hearing peoples' thoughts about Nora and Ren. I definitely had to think for a while about how I wanted to add Miss Ren, but I think she came out well.

Btw, I'm looking for a piece of artwork to commission for the cover, but I really wouldnt even know where to start looking for someone. Any takers?

As always, thanks so much for reading, and please let me know what you think about everything! I really mean it when I say reviews are what keeps me going with this!

ily